Some 498 Richmond-area employees of Elephant Insurance are in for a treat.

Henry Engelhardt and his wife, Dianne, are making a personal gift of $1,449 for every employee with a year’s experience and $724 for all others.

The surprise part of Engelhardt’s pending retirement from Britain-based Admiral Group.

In a statement to his employees globally, Engelhartdt said: “Saying Thank You to all the Admiral staff who work so hard every day to make Admiral great is the most important thing we can do.”

Engelhardt helped grow the Admiral Group from a startup to a company with an estimated value of about $7 billion.

Last year, Elephant Insurance announced it would be expanding its Henrico County operation off of Gaskins Road to nearly 1,200 employees.

The company prides itself on its generous employee benefits.